Hello everyone. Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Paula McGrew. She has written a very beautiful book. I hope you all will enjoy this interview and check out Paula's book.Please, tell us a little about yourself.I grew up on the North Dakota prairie and spent as much time as I could at my grandparents’ farm where I rode horse and played with my cousins. During my teens, my family moved to Minnesota where I’ve lived ever since. I am a Certified Medical Transcriptionist and worked in that field for 13 years before becoming the Graduate Nursing Coordinator for a private Catholic college. My husband, Kevin, and I have been married for 20 years and we have two sons, Graham and Soren. I am passionate about growing, raising and preserving our own food, gardening, staying healthy and using essential oils.What is the title of your book?The title of my book is My Heart Beats For You.Please, tell us a little about your book.My Heart Beats For You is written as a love letter from God. Reading it is like listening to God speak directly to your heart, assuring you of your worth and that you were made for a purpose and are precious to Him. You are someone He treasures. What inspired you to write this book?Initially, I wrote this book for my sons, Graham and Soren, as a love letter from God. I included pictures of them as children to go along with the Bible verses about how God made them, loves them, takes care of them and wants to be their Friend. From those scrapbooks evolved My Heart Beats For You which is now available to the public.How long have you been writing?I’ve been writing since I was in elementary school – writing letters to my cousins, keeping a diary, coming up with story ideas – and even wrote a book about horses for my sixth grade teacher for a school assignment. I had fun with that project and receiving an A on it was like frosting on a cake. I was hooked from then on. Writing, English classes, and studying vocabulary – but NOT diagraming sentences! – are some things I’ve always enjoyed and I’ve written poetry, magazine articles, newsletter articles for my church, missionary biographies, book reviews, children’s Sunday School puzzles, and a children’s picture book.Do you have other books?Yes, I have another book titled Poodles at Play which I released in January. It’s a children’s picture book written in rhyme. While I was writing it, my husband kept telling me I was channeling my inner Dr. Seuss!What is your hope for your book?My hope for My Heart Beats For You is that when people read it, they will believe – with a deep heartfelt belief – that God loves them, has a good plan for their lives, desires the very best for them, and longs to have a relationship with them.Besides writing, what are some of your other hobbies or interests?My husband, boys, and I live on a ten-acre hobby farm in northeastern Minnesota where we garden, raise bees, laying hens, and meat chickens. We have a hunting dog and four Pygmy goats as pets. I enjoy baking from scratch, canning, scrapbooking, summer weather and riding horse.If you are a children’s author, do you illustrate your own books?No, I don’t illustrate my own books. That is definitely not my forte! For My Heart Beats For You, I used Photoshop to add text to the pictures, and I also used a few of the pre-populated backgrounds that come with the Photoshop computer program. For the rest of the backgrounds, I used scenes from a paid subscription to VideoBlocks,which offers some amazing products. As far as my picture book, though, I hired an illustrator, Krystine Kercher, to illustrate for me.Is there a message, a lesson, or a moral to your story? If so, would you to share it?Yes, the message is about God’s love. He loves us unconditionally, with an everlasting love, and that’s the best, most awesome message any one of us could receive! No matter what we do, no matter who we are, no matter how many times we fail, His love never changes.Do you make your own covers?My husband made the cover for My Heart Beats For You from a photo I purchased from Fotolia.

What are/were your favorite and least favorite subjects in school and why?My favorite subjects in school were writing and English, and my least favorites were math and science. Spelling, writing, and vocabulary are subjects I enjoy, and they came easily to me. As far as memorizing the Periodic Table of the Elements and writing geometric proofs goes – no, not so much.Do you have a blog or website?Yes, I have a brand new website I’ve been working on. You can find it at www.paulalynnmcgrew.com.

Are you a morning person or a night person?Definitely a morning person. I like getting up with the sun.

What is your favorite place to write?My favorite place to write is in my rocking chair in the living room.Please list whatever links you would like to leave.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulaLynnMcGrewTwitter: https://twitter.com/PaulaLynnMcGrewWebsite: www.paulalynnmcgrew.comWhat other genre(s) would you like to write some day?Some day, I would like to write romantic fiction. What is your next project?I have ideas for three more children’s picture books. Two stories are in the very beginning rough stage, and the other one is simply a title, a few sentences, and the ending.

Jodi Desautels

Jodi Desautels is a wife and mother. She is a life-long learner who has two rules to live by: "The Golden Rule" and "Live. Laugh. Love." She loves family, friends, and nature. Passions include caring for people, education, writing, illustrating, and photography.